Penn State football's harsh reality: Week-to-week improvement wasn't enough
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Penn State quarterback Sean Clifford didn't allow the question about moral victories to reach its conclusion before he interjected with the cold but unavoidable truth.
"We lost the game," he said, tersely.
Indeed, the Nittany Lions lost the game. They tested No. 5 Ohio State in ways many predicted they couldn't following last week's defeat to lowly Illinois, but ultimately came up short in a 33-24 defeat on the road.
There are reasons to feel positively about what Penn State showed Saturday night. Its offense, which stalled last week, recovered to post 24 points and 394 total yards against an excellent defense, something head coach James Franklin attributed to Clifford's health postgame.
Both Parker Washington and Jahan Dotson surpassed the 100-yard threshold. The Penn State defense corrected its extreme deficiency in the run game from last week to keep star Ohio State back TreVeyon Henderson from totally taking over as he often does.
For Clifford, the silver linings just make it more difficult.
"That's the worst part," he said. "You feel like you're getting better but it's just not enough. On myself, I feel I could have done so much more to change the outcome. That's the toughest part of being a leader is just battling through your own adversity as well as the team's."
Everyone walks the same line following a game like this — fans, coaches, players, media. The Nittany Lions played well in a game that many assumed would result in a demolition job. Is there room to acknowledge that in the immediate aftermath? Is there only space for disappointment?
Circumstance can sometimes place a person on either side of that particular divide.
Clifford, an Ohio native, lost to the Buckeyes for the fifth consecutive time on Saturday. He might not get a sixth opportunity. As he made clear postgame, he was in no mood for moral victories.
"It's tough," he said. "This is where I'm from. I'm from Ohio. This is a tough one for me."
Everyone will process the defeat — one that all but surely takes certain objectives, like the Big Ten Title, off the table for the Nittany Lions — differently.
Dotson admitted he doesn't handle losing very well. Joey Porter Jr. said he tries not to sulk, because he feels it causes complacency.
"It hurts," defensive end Arnold Ebiketie said. "It hurts because you put so much into this, and you work so hard. We came out here. We had no doubt. We believed we were going to get the win and we didn't get the job done. It hurt. We can't let that break us."
Within this group of Nittany Lions, a collective determination exists to move on from whatever they're feeling — disappointment after a loss, excitement following a win — following the Sunday film session, when the corrections are made.
That is when this week ends and the next week begins for those within the program.
On the back of three consecutive defeats that have changed the outlook of this season, next week is everything to these Nittany Lions.
As Clifford put it, it's all they have left.
"We don't have this anymore," Clifford said. "We don't have the past three games either, so we have to bounce back and fight through adversity. We're being tested right now."
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